Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 04-28-26_TUESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

04-28-26_TUESDAY_6AM

This hour of the Bill Meyer Show podcast is proudly sponsored by Klauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for more than 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausurrilling.com. Now more with Bill Meyer. Good morning and welcome to Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. How you doing this morning, huh? Pebble in my shoe, I don't know what it is. I woke up at 1.30 this morning, going to bed at 9, and that was about it.

And what is it about when you have trouble sleeping at night somehow? You can't trouble your or you can't quiet your mind for whatever reason. It just, I mean, and I took magnesium. I had sleepy time. Tea last night did all that sort of stuff. Yeah, woke up in 1.30. And that was it. And that was it.

And then it gets to be about 3.45, 4 o'clock. Then you can fall back asleep. What is that? I'll bet there's something in our evolutionary. pattern or whatever it is. I know they talked about that back in the day. We were almost primed for what they called two sleep cycles, one sleep cycle, and then you wake up in the middle of the night, and then you'd go back to sleep for a while. I remember reading something about that, but yeah, that doesn't work with the regular work week, does it? No. How much melatonin can you pound

out, huh? But anyway, welcome to the show. It's Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. Do you have a Pebble? Let me know. 770 5633 770 KMED. Governor Kotech signing Senate Bill 1501 into law yesterday. And essentially we are now all of us going to be part owners and part advisor or supervisors of the Portland Motor Center. That's really what's going on. It's like $600 million in all sorts of renovations, $350 million. million dollars in improvement bonds, you know, all that kind of stuff. And this was done so we can keep a billionaire sport team in Portland.

Is it worth it? Is it worth it? Let me know, okay? I just, um, this, this whole idea that taxpayers pony up money and influence to help out sports ball, just a, well, I mean, the same sort of thing going on here in southern Oregon. Same thing goes on around here. And this whole idea of how much money are we going to put into having a baseball team come to Southern Oregon. And I know everybody has the best of intentions. And I know everyone, economic development, economic development, economic development,

well, there's so much damn economic development, pay for it yourself. But I think cities have really, cities and states, for that matter, have really conditioned sports teams. Oh, yeah, Yeah, yeah, we're worth a billion or two or something like that. Yeah, no problem. But we can get the taxpayers to build our project or at least be partners, the public-private partnership. And yeah, Governor Kotech blinked in the, so this was the big deal. And everybody got on board for the most part, but not everybody.

There are a number of people who did not sign or vote for Senate Bill 1501. As an example, State Senator Kim Thacher, State Senator Lentheum, State Senator Robinson. They voted no on that. So apparently they look at basketball teams should be buying their own centers. Or cities, if they want to do it, should be doing their own centers. They shouldn't have to make it go with everybody else. Oh, by the way, Dwayne Yonker voted no on that.

Yeah, Dwayne Yonker voted no on that too. Practically everybody else did know. I know that Kim Wallen voted for it and Emily McIntyre voted for it. A deal voted for it. And state senator, yep, state senator Christine Drazen voted for it too. I don't get it. Why is it that we should be shoveling anything into the jailblazers? Why should we be doing that?

Where Portland wants to tax themselves fine, but why should the rest of us be involved? Can anybody explain that? That's a pebble in my shoe this morning. 7705-633-770 KMED Melania Trump calls for ABC to fire coward Jimmy Kimmel after expectant widow joke before shooting This is in PJ Media First Lady doesn't want to be part of every argument

As she's clearly upset After vile comedian Jimmy Kimmel referred to First Lady Melania Trump as an expectant widow Yeah, the glow of the expectant widow, right? in a series of grossly inappropriate jokes before the Saturday assassination attempt. The First Lady responded with dignity but without holding back on emphasizing just how dangerous the rhetoric is. I think the First Lady's wrong in this case. I am no fan of Jimmy Kimmel.

Tell me if I'm wrong, okay? If you think I'm wrong, you let me have it. Go ahead. Let me have it. I'm grumpy because of lack of sleep, so go ahead and have it. Have at it with me, okay? But it only became a gross joke about assassination after an assassination attempt. Thursday, I actually believe Jimmy Kimmel.

I think it was a bad joke. I think it was a tasteless joke, but Jimmy Kimmel is tasteless. A lot of comedy is tasteless there. The Expected Widow. I don't think this was about, hey, we're going to have him shot up at the White House Correspondents dinner. I think it's a stretch. Now, had he told the joke on Monday? Yeah. I think that, I think then that makes the case.

But I think this is an example of everybody. Well, let's go, okay, the enemy made a mistake here. Let's hold him on it. Was it a mistake? No, it's just a bad joke. Should he be fired? That's up to ABC. I don't watch him.

I never will watch him. I will continue not to watch him, but what do you think? 7-7-0K-A-D. Let's go to it. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this? Good morning, Bill. It's Francine.

Francine, how you doing this morning? What's on your mind? Got a pebble? Well, yeah, I've got it kind of, it's sort of a pebble, but I also wanted to just mention something that might help you with your sleep thing. Okay. Okay, so there's a supplement called L-D-E-H-E-A-N-I-N-E, and it's kind of, it sort of helps calm your mind, slow your mind down a little bit.

Yeah, I have about two bottles of that at home. It doesn't work with me for some reason. It doesn't. You combine it with magnesium and calcium? No, I did not do that. I'll send you a little something. You give it a whirl if you want. Okay, thank you.

But, you know, it's only during the week that I have this problem. It's just a work nights. Work nights are fine. Weekend, no problem, you know? It just happens sometimes. I can't turn my brain off either, you know? Mm-hmm. I'm laying awake all night thinking, what am I going to say to bill tomorrow?

So I'm living in your head even then, huh? Oh, that's funny. I do have a bit, it's a sort of pebble. I called him once before and had the pebble of how everything you do, every place you go, everything you buy next to you know you're getting a text asking you to write them, right? Yes. Okay.

So last week, I'm in Medford and I'm getting ready to head home. I'm going up Garfield, getting ready to turn right onto the southbound freeway. And there's a couple of geese and two little goslings. They're so cute, you know. And they were starting to walk out into the road. And so I immediately started honking my horn at them to kind of scare them away, you know, from the road. And so I pulled into the, you know, I was in the lane. I just stopped and turned all my flashers and honked at them a little more and got them to go back down.

Then I called, since it was after six and I couldn't reach any wildlife people. I called that I went to call dispatch. Dispatch is closed. So I called 911. And they said they'd send somebody out to, you know, make sure the geese were not coming back up on the road, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, my good deed for the day, right? So a couple of days later, I get a text, wanting me to rate my interaction with the police. You've got to have a Yelp review, right? They sent it twice. I didn't respond. They sent it again. You know, it's bad enough that you buy something on Amazon. Why haven't you reviewed? William, people are looking at your reviews.

Francine, people want to see your reviews. Right, they really care what I think. Well, apparently they do. They do this. You know, I'll tell you, there was another pebble in my shoe. This was from a few years ago. Remember a Boland Branch used to advertise in The Rush Show? I remember the name, kind of.

I don't remember about it. Now, Bowling Branch, I think it still, I think it may still exist. But we actually bought some sheets from Bowling Branch a number of years ago back when Rush was still alive. Oh, right. The Sheet Company. Yeah, sheet company. So we bought them, and they were bad. They were bad sheets.

and they snagged and they were not good, right? And they always talk about, see, all of our five-star reviews, right? So we go online to leave a non-five-star review and, oops, something went wrong. Try again later. And then we tried to leave another non-five-star review. Oops, something went wrong. Try again later. We never could get a review in there.

So sometimes it's a bit of a racket. You think? Yeah, exactly. So thank you. Feel your pain. All right. And by the way, it had nothing to do with Rush. Just happened to be that one experience with buying those sheets.

Snaggy. They were snaggy. It didn't work out well for me. Hi, good morning. KM.D., who's this? It's Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. Good morning. Do you have me?

Charlotte, it is you. Good morning, Charlotte. How are you? No, I'm Karen. Oh, hi, Karen. This is Bill. You said something about waking up at 1 o'clock in the morning. Yeah.

The question I have is, did you have any alcohol that evening? None. Because religiously, if I have more than a little bit, I wake up at 1 o'clock and I'm wide awake until about 3. I agree with you, Charlotte. Now, what was your name again? Karen. Karen. Okay, I don't know why I thought I was Charlotte.

I thought I heard you say Charlotte. But anyway, yeah, any alcohol, I'm done for sleep that night. I'm right there with you. But no, not last night. I'll go to sleep well at the beginning at like 8 or 9 and 10 o'clock. but one o'clock I'm wide awake for at least three hours. Yeah. Well, I'm always trying all sorts of things.

It's like now the latest one that I had was, well, you want, if you're going to use magnesium to try to go to sleep, they say use magnesium glycinate, they say is the best one to a... I've heard that. Yeah. I haven't tried that one. I'll put that one on the list for trying next time. Well, that's what I was using last night. And the thing is, it did make me tired, but he didn't go to sleep.

Yeah. Yeah. Ouch. And I don't want to take the sleeping pills all the time because, you know, those interruptors are not real good for the brain health. And they talk about, you know, maybe leading to dementia things later. And, of course, but of course, lack of sleep can give you dementia too eventually. Yeah, right. Yeah. Anyway, I just restricted my alcohol to a glass of wine with dinner, a small glass of wine with dinner.

and I don't usually have that problem anymore, but it was routine. I had more than a couple of glasses. That's too bad. Sorry about that. But if you end up reading the news cycle or paying attention to the news, I really wouldn't blame you for having two or three or four drinks sometimes. Yeah. I agree.

The news is kind of scary, isn't it? I appreciate the call. Thank you. Call again. Goodbye. Goodbye. 624. This is KMED and the Bill Myers show.

Jackson County, your vote counts. This May 19th primary election process will be exactly the same as prior years. There have been no changes to how we conduct elections in Oregon. If you are not registered with a major political party, you will receive a ballot with nonpartisan candidates and measures. Know when your ballot arrives at your mailbox by signing up at informed delivery.usps.com. Postmark or deposit your ballot in an official ballot drop box no later than 8 p.m. on May 19th. but recommended that you mail by May 12. Track your ballot as it leaves your hand

when you mail or deposit in an official ballot drop box at Oregonvotes.gov slash my vote. Postage is not needed to mail, and don't forget to sign your ballot return envelope. Hello, I'm Chris Walker, your Jackson County Clerk. For more information, visit jacksoncountyor.gov slash elections. Your county clerk's office, making sure your vote counts. This is Bill Meyer with KMED.

Programming note that if you miss one of my shows or you want to go back and listen again, I always archive about three months of my show at Billmeyer's show.com and KMED.com. You can search by Dayton Topping. Download the hour of your choice and you can share them too. Bill Meyer Show podcasts are made possible by Klauser Drilling. So please visit Billmeyer's show.com and KMED.com for podcasts. And to find out more about our sponsor, Klauser Drilling. That's simple.

Visit clouserdrilling.com. Does Progressive work hard for truckers? Because truckers unite the world. Truckers unite soccer moms and oranges. Truckers unite unbelievably scratchy carpets with two-star hotels. Truckers unite capes with adults who watch too many wizard movies. But truckers can't do any of this if they're not on the road. That's why Progressive has over 360 heavy truck claims reps to help you get back on the road fast.

Get a quote in as little as eight minutes at progressivecommercial.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. I'm Megan McPherson with the McPherson Insurance Agency, and I'm on KMED. Price of oil spiking a bit this morning. It's about two, three cents, maybe a nickel in some cases higher. Price is just popped up overnight here in Southern Oregon, about five at a quarter. The average cost for a gallon of regular. Now, of course, that also is an average. So some are higher, some are lower, like a town e-pump and some of the other discount gas places.

and diesel, six and a quarter. Six and a quarter. And what, seven or eight out on the coast? Yeah, yeah, that's okay. What they are saying, though, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, saying, while the surviving Iranian leaders are trapped like drowning rats in a sewage pipe, Iran's creaking oil industry is starting to shut in production thanks to the U.S. blockade, pumping will soon collapse, gasoline shortages in Iran next.

And doing business with sanctioned Iranian Airlines, risks exposure to U.S. sanctions. Foreign governments should take all actions necessary to ensure that companies in their jurisdiction do not provide services to those aircraft, including providing jet fuel, catering, et cetera, et cetera. So the indispensable empire continues to reach. Back, I'm going to talk about the empire here

with Steve Bonta in a few minutes. Bonta is an economic expert, and he's the publisher of the New American, the John Birch Society's published. location, good website, by the way. And he's talking about strain on the Petro Dollar. Yeah.

The Petro dollar has been an amazing, well, it's been a burden and an amazing privilege for us to be able to export our inflation, but maybe it's getting a little tougher. We'll find out. I'll talk with him about that. Also, a little bit later in the show, after 7 o'clock, I'm talking with Wendy Reese.

And Wendy Reese had PTSD and ended up taking a bunch of psychedelics. He ended up doing the psychedelic treatment, you know, like what Rogan was talking about and how they ended up having us executive order that President Trump ended up putting out the other week. And I have to tell you, I have, I don't know if it's an irrational dislike or just uncomfortableness with the, the psychedelic treatment on PTSD that they're making such a big thing because it's such a big fad. I don't know if it's just because it's a big fad right now or just the idea that you're taking a lot of psychedelic medications in order to cure PTSD, but it seems to be helping some people. And she

wrote a book called The Christian's Guide to Psychedelics, because I don't know, maybe some people are thinking that it's ungodly to go for this treatment. I don't know, but I'll talk with her about that after 7 o'clock. And then Herman's going to join me, a former Senator Herman Berchiger. We're going to talk about what happened in last night's candidates for him in Josephine County. I didn't get a chance to watch it. It was a late night for me. And I wanted to go to Dr. Douglas Frank last night. Like I said, it was a long night out in the long day, I should say out in the field.

So by the time I got home, it's like I was done. But we'll find out what happened. What happened? And who made good for themselves and maybe who didn't present their case to the voters so much? We'll see about that. Of course, it was being done by the Chamber of Commerce. And the Provin Chamber of Commerce is that Chamber of Commerce is not. They are not a conservative organizations.

Maybe back in the 1940s or 50s they were conservative organizations and business people were, but not these days. All right. Before I have the rest of the news and move on, Crazy Jean has been patient. You've been waiting there on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. Hello, Crazy Gene. Welcome back. Well, thank you for bringing me on. You bet. And, well, this is something I've experienced so many times before, but it happened last night.

What's that? I got up and went pee three times. And I'm wondering, where is this water? I'm peeing because I don't drink at night. Where is it coming from? Yeah. Yeah. How old are you, Gene?

Oh, I'm ancient. I'm 68. Okay, welcome to age 68. I think that's part of it. Now, the thing is, do you sleep well? Yeah. Oh, okay. The reason I bring that up is that I read once, and I'm not a doctor, but I sometimes talk to them on the radio, okay?

But I remember reading about how if there's any kind of interruption in the sleep cycle, there's a hormone that actually tells the body to stop producing as much urine overnight so that you don't have those middle of the night wee sessions, as it were. Yeah. So I don't know if you have any chance to maybe talk to a doctor about that because, you know, if you have to get up three times, that is a, yeah, it interrupts the sleep a lot. Oh, yeah. Well, it's sort of like you. I get up and go pee and you just can't sleep, but it's the same situation. Yeah, I'm just staring at the ceiling there for a while. And then I start doing the breathing and try to do the, you know, get rid of the stress breathing. Yeah. And I'll tell you. It is...

It's... It's right. There is nothing like the lack of sleep to determine the quality of a day. It's amazing what good sleep can do and what bad sleep will do to you, so to speak. Well, yeah. I mean, life is miserable enough. Just the few hours that you are awake, don't get... Add extra to it.

Yeah. See, we need to be all sleeping like babies. Of course, I don't know. Maybe babies don't always sleep well, but... Yeah, sit around and cry and ask for my bottle, okay? Okay. Thank you, Gene. Good luck on that. It's 632 at KMED. We'll catch up on the rest of the news and then the Petro Dollar and then psychedelics and Christians finding hope and healing. Is there something to this? I'm kind of uncomfortable with that whole thing. I know that's a big deal, but I'll talk with Wendy Reese about that too, along with your calls. Stephen Westfall roofing is growing. Now proudly serving Brookings, Gold Beach, and the entire Southern Oregon coast. They specialize in metal roofing, architectural shingles rated for high winds and impact and classic tile roofing, delivering durable,

energy-efficient solutions for homes and businesses. With over 18 years of trusted experience, they're licensed, bonded, and insured for your peace of mind. Click or call today and get your estimate tomorrow. Stephen Westfall Roofing, 541-941-3736. Licensed CCB-250730. Hi, it's Megan McPherson with the McPherson Insurance Agency. We are now a 100% independent insurance agency. New name, same great service, with more companies to better serve your families and businesses. Give us a call at 541-7-87-4-1-77. Allow us to put our years of experience to work for you, now with more companies to choose from, the McPherson Insurance Agency, local, trusted, and now with more options for Southern Oregon, 541-787-4-1-77. KMED News, here's what's going on. Governor Kotech signed

SB 1501 into law yesterday. That will lead to a $600 million renovation of Portland's Motor Center. The moves being done to keep the trailblazers in Portland. Essentially the state, meaning we taxpayers, are paying to be partial owners and managers of the aging facility. Asante asking the state for emergency permission to buy the Southern Oregon Surgery Center, which is across the street from RRMC in Medford. Asante already owns a piece of the center, which has been in financial trouble lately. According to the Ashland Chronicle, the Oregon Health Authority has been dragging its feet to give approval for the sale because of what they say is Asante's non-cooperation regarding providing financial information about the closure of Assante's Ashland Hospital operation.

Iran war tensions leading to another spike in oil and fuel costs, AAA reporting in Jackson and Josephine counties, you'll pay an average of around 523 for a gallon of regular gas, diesel about six and a quarter. If you're traveling I-5 around Ashland and sees smoke in the hills, worries. The Sisku Mountains Ranger District is conducting a couple of prescribed burns near the Ashland Watershed. A total of 40 acres will be treated today. And another program

to help Medford residents reduce wildfires is coming soon. It's wood chipper days. Residents can take branches and limbs up to eight inches in diameter and get them chipped for free. That's going on Wednesday and Thursday from 9 to 2 at Fitchner Mainwaring Park and Donahue Fronmeyer Park. Bill Meyer, KMED News.

I'm Taylor and this is the Fox Business Report. The United Arab Emirates has announced it will be leaving OPEC and OPEC Plus effect of May 1st. The UAE says the decision reinforces its commitment to a responsible, reliable, and forward-looking role in global energy markets. Crude oil prices are higher, up $100 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate, $111 for the global benchmark Brent Crude. General Motors is raising expectations for this year. it sees a smaller hit from tariffs now that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected President Trump's emergency tariffs. UPS, Smithfield Foods, Hilton Worldwide, and Kimberly Clark all have reported a better

than expected quarter this morning. Though the NASDAQ is slumping, the Wall Street Journal says OpenAIs, new users, and revenue came in below its own estimates. That's your Fox Business Report. I'm Jenny Koselda, invested in you. You're probably listening to this in your car. so let me ask you. Would you drive without insurance? Of course not. So why is your retirement portfolio unprotected? Gold is portfolio insurance. It helps de-risk your savings when markets get unpredictable. Noble Gold Investments has helped thousands of Americans do exactly that with no high-pressure sales and thousands of five-star reviews. Visit noblegoldinvestments.com. That's noblegoldinvestments.com. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Investing in precious metals involves risk. Consult with your tax or financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Should you trust your drinking water on a do-it-yourself water test? I don't think so. At the Grants Pass Water Lab, we get a lot of calls about this. The kits are cheap and, yeah, they look easy, but the results can be confusing and still require a lab follow-up. Save your money and go straight to the Water Lab. Our equipment is much better at detection, and our staff sure beats a hard-to-read instruction packet.

Find us online at thewaterlab.com or GPWaterlab.com. If you have an Alexa device, listen to KMED anytime by first asking Alexa. Enable KMED. After enabling the skill, listen by just asking her to play KMED. Alexa's streaming for KMED is made possible by McPherson Insurance Agency. News Talk 1063, KMED. You're waking up with the Bill Myers Show. I always enjoy talking with Steve Bonta.

He's publisher of the New American. It's a magazine of the John Birch Society, New American, The New American.com. And he has been involved in international economics and geopolitics for over a quarter of a century. Got a BA in literature from Penn State. So not only that, you're well-read too. Isn't that right, Steve? Welcome back to the show.

If you say so, Bill. I guess so. You can never be well enough read. That's in my experience. Exactly. You've got to keep going. PhD from Cornell. What's the PhD in?

I have to ask. Yeah, it's in linguistics. In linguistics. Okay. So, Dr. Bonta. Anyway, here we go. I'm just having fun with you. You know about that, Steve.

But I always appreciate you coming on. I was checking the dollar index. The dollar does seem to be going up in value a bit here recently, but it's been under a bit of pressure. And I know in the New American that there was a recent article that was talking about the petro dollar getting a little shaky, and is this pretending a global reserve currency shift to the Chinese yuan? I don't know about that.

but I want to break this down because having the reserve currency is an amazing burden and an amazing privilege all at the same time, isn't it? It's both. Well, yeah, I mean, that, of course, goes back to the Bretton Woods Agreement near the end of World War II. And it was sort of the fallback at the Bretton Woods conference, John Maynard Keynes, who led the British delegation, wanted the post-war post-war global financial order to feature a single central bank and a single global currency, which he proposed to call the bank corps. And that did not, that was a bridge too far for the American delegation, notwithstanding their leader, Harry Dexter White, was himself a crypto-communist and certainly was a globalist in the sense of the word. But the sense was

that that just was not politically feasible. And so, you know, Instead of that, the delegations at Bretton Woods agreed to make the U.S. dollar the world's default or reserve currency. But the condition was that foreigners who held dollars or dollar denominated assets would be able to redeem such in gold if they so chose. And so this very tenuous remnant of the gold standard was maintained per the original version of Bretton Woods. And then when the Vietnam War came up and the U.S. found that, you know, needed more, so to speak, flexibility and ability to inflate the currency. Yeah, let me translate that. Instead of having a guns or butter economy, everyone wanted a guns and butter economy, right? Pretty much, pretty much. And so finally, under pressure, Nixon announced in 1970 that he was, quote, unquote, closing the gold window, meaning that foreigners would no longer be able to redeem dollars in gold. And so this was a, frankly, a rank repudiation of an American obligation. I mean, so next time someone tells you that America doesn't default on her debts, that's not really true, because this was a type of default. And the result was a decade, the 70s, kind of a lost decade of ruinous inflation. And, you know, and recession and so forth, as the world adjusted to this new reality, that there was no longer

any gold standard outside of, you know, the Swiss franc remained on the gold standard, I think, until the early 1990s. But that was, but by and large, you know, the global reserve currency agreed to Bretton Woods was now completely fiat, meaning it was not redeemable in specie or precious metals. So, but it's, but before, you know, at that time, uh, foreign countries, particularly the French, were very indignant at this, at Nixon for doing this, and understandably so. They said, well, if you're going to, if you're going to do this to us, at least let's make an arrangement whereby from now on petroleum, which is, you know, black gold in effect, can only be transacted in American dollars. And thus was the petro dollar system

born. So in a sense, in a sense, not in the same sense that the dollar was once backed by gold and silver, but in some sense, one could say that the dollar is now linked to oil. is what petro dollar is. Yeah. Now part of that deal, Steve, if I recall correctly, is that we were providing security for the Arab Gulf states. Wasn't that part of the deal? Absolutely.

Right. Yeah, I mean, that was all baked into that. And we would be the guarantors of continuing to guarantors of open shipping and all this kind of thing and make sure that the flow of oil, particularly from the Middle East, but also from other places like Venezuela, Mexico, and so forth, would be unimpeded. Indonesia. other countries have large oil fields. So that was the arrangement.

And of course, that allows the fact that the dollar remains the World Reserve currency, A, and B, is no longer tethered to any precious metal, means that technically the entire world is at the mercy of the authorities at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve, as to what they're going to do with the dollar. And there's sort of this tacit understanding worldwide that, yeah, well, we'll inflate the dollar. fiat money is, you're going to print money sometimes to get out of trouble, and that's going to lead to inflation. But we're not going to do it irresponsibly the way, say, on Argentina or Zimbabwe might do. At least that is the theory. But in, you know, in recent years, we've resorted more and more to

things like, you know, to forms of financial blackmail, which, you know, leaving aside the question of whether it's justified, as in the case of, you know, with Russia versus Ukraine and this kind of thing. and now, of course, with the Iran and the Middle East, the fact is that that raises hackles internationally, and people question more and more. Yeah, they start looking for an exit ramp. And I don't blame them, too, because, you know, it's at the point where the United States is, okay, we want you to use, no, we want you to use our dollar, all right? But if you don't use the dollar the way we would like to, then we're going to thump you over the head with it, right? And I just don't, I think that ability is starting to corrode and weaken a bit. agree with me on that? There's only so long that you can do that with various countries.

And they'll say, hey, you know, we'll go with bricks or we'll find some other way to bypass the American system. What do you think? Well, yeah, I mean, obviously there are countries that are trying to do this already. You mentioned the Bricks country. The Bricks doesn't have anywhere near the economic clout that the United States does. And neither does China. I mean, I was on a show yesterday talking about this at length, you know, having lived in China for four years and experienced the way things are there. The UN or the Renminbi is a relatively stable currency, but the Chinese government's own policies militate against any possibility that could become a true international currency,

because as with everything else, they're deeply paranoid that things in China can get out of China, whether it's, you know, or things outside of China that they don't want can get in, you know, hence the great firewall around the Internet and all the rest of these, these types of controls. Well, they have something similar where finance is concerned. You know, people living and working in China, foreigners can't just use their credit cards wherever they want if they were living, the way they could if they were living in, say, Tokyo or Seoul or Bangkok. Yeah, but you can't be a big financial power or have that reserve currency if you're an insular economy, right? That's kind of what you're talking. The economy is very opaque, and they set strict limits and controls on money going out of China and this kind of thing.

So, yeah, inside of China, you know, the Redmond B is okay, although another thing, you know, they don't even like people holding cash. So the largest denominated bill is only 100, you know, R&B, which is like $12, U.S. It's not that much. They don't have the equivalent of $50 and $100 bills. So, you know, so the controls are just suffocating. And until unless that ever changes, there's no way the U.N. is going to be as desirable as the dollar because it's not as flexible. Okay. So that's something to put to bed.

Meanwhile, the ruble, you know, I mean, look at the condition of Russia right now. That's not going to work. The euro would be the most likely competitor. Well, Euro's been a dead man walking for, what, 20 years? Right. I mean, you know, so none of these, I mean, at this point, a lot of these countries, I think they look into it. They're indignant at the way the United States swaggeres around and, you know, throws its weight around, as you mentioned. But then they look at and say, well, what are our options?

What are we going to do? What could we do besides the dollar? And they sort of shrug and acquiesce. Now, that's in the short term. In the long term, of course, this system, like all Fiat money system, is based critically on confidence. And if the day should come, for example, that the people who buy U.S. debt in order to allow us to continue to create money, if they decide that they're no longer trust that the U.S. is going to

make good on its obligations, that they're going to, instead of paying back bond interest at a fair rate that they're going to try to inflate their way out of their debt, which countries do, then, you know, the problem is that when it comes time to auction, auctioned treasuries and no one is willing to to buy them at the reasonable interest rates, then we've got a big problem. And those sorts of things don't just afflict, you know, the Italy's and the Argentinas and the Greece's of the world. It's never, I mean, we're kind of uncharted waters because we've never had a global currency system before, global reserve currency based on confidence. Everybody's kind of, you know, everybody's dependent on it.

And, you know, and it's hard to imagine that there could be a contrivance that could replace it. But, again, if confidence were to fail critically worldwide, that could change in a minute. And, you know, a big difference between the United States and Argentina. Very similar countries. I lived in Argentina for a while. I love Argentina. But what's the difference? Why does Argentina always have ruinous inflation, whereas we don't?

And the answer is because Argentina's currency is not a reserve currency. They can't export the effects of their inflation the way we can. And we do export our inflation. That's essentially what we do. Yeah. So that's why our economy seems to sometimes to walk on water. It seems to be just irrationally exuberance never ends because we have this escape valve that no other currency has. And don't you believe that people don't understand that? I mean, obviously the savvy money managers in China and Japan and the EU, they all know this. But right now they're also cognizant of the fact there's not a lot they can do about it. But, you know, generationally, you know, we'll, we'll, What will things look like in 20 years? You know, the world is definitely trending away from the current system and getting sick of the U.S. dollar and kind of the U.S. presumption in matters that you mentioned. Now, Steve, would it be fair to say, though, that President Trump himself seems to be wanting the dollar, and he's been quite open that he wants the dollar to be less valuable? He wants it to be less valuable. So, in a whereas he's almost telling the rest of the world that, yep, we're going to inflate and we're going to push this down because he wants, of course,

a cheaper currency for the export markets. And so it's kind of kind of thread a needle there, doesn't he? Well, right. I mean, you know, I mean, the whole rationale for this new currency system post-World War II arose out of the currency wars of the 1930s, the so-called beggar-thy-neighbor policies that countries were practicing whereby they would print lots and lots of money, cheap in their own currency, so they could, they could improve their prospects for exports. And so this is a game that you can play when everybody has a fiat currency.

And so that creates a need for some sort of international managerial system, which wasn't needed back when all the currencies in the world were tethered to gold or silver. Because then the precious metal supply acts as an automatic check on these kinds of hijinks. And so when that was taken away in the 20s and 30s of the last century, then it was complete anarchy and countries could play these games. And what Trump is proposing is, unfortunately, you know, I mean, he does show signs of financial sagacity at times, as, for example, when he questions the legitimacy of the Federal Reserve, which he has done, or talks about maybe getting rid of the federal income tax, which, again, he's talked about all this stuff. But I don't hear him talking about returning to a sensible monetary system. In fact, a constitutionally mandated monetary system, which would be gold and silver based. I don't see him doing that. It looks more like he's saying, well, you know, we've got the reserve currency, and we're going to, you know, revive the old beggars. I'm just kind of wondering, what is your evaluation here, given you've lived so many areas, in so many areas of the world within your life, including, you know, Asia and elsewhere. What would you say is the health of taking the petro dollar forward?

because I think if there's one thing that the Arab states found out is that the United States is not really able to protect them and take on Iran at the same time. At least that seems to be what is going on. Iran's able to reach out and thwap natural gas and oil facilities at will, really, with their drone systems. Yeah, so what are you asking exactly? Oh, what I was asking is that what do you think is the health of the petro dollar moving forward because part of the deal, like I'd mentioned, was that, well, the United States would keep all of these Arab nations safe. Well, it's pretty clear that we can't rub our tummy and pat our head at the same time when it comes to that. You can either take on Iran or you can protect the Gulf states. You probably can't do both.

Well, we could. The problem is Trump's absurd treasurer situation. I mean, he just cannot make up his mind what he wants to do. And I know the MAGA boosters among your listeners say, oh, he's playing five-dimensional chess. You just don't understand. No, I do understand, okay? When this war started, we were told about the litany of evils that Iran has done. And it is an evil regime, no question about it.

And they've given us ample cassus belli over the decades that previous U.S. presidents haven't responded to in any kind of robust manner. and Trump is absolutely right when he says that. So why in the middle of the war are we simply talking to them? Why did we just stop and we're trying to cut a deal with this all of a sudden? I mean, did we do that with the Germans and World Wars one or two? Did we do that with the Japanese? Of course not. And at the beginning, you know, in the opening days of the war, it was, okay, you know, the time for talk is done.

Well, yeah, and it's two weeks to flatten the Iranians, essentially, is what we were told, right? Well, you know, basically Trump has lost interest, and he's looking at other shiny objects now, and he just wants to find a way out. He doesn't, you know, suddenly he doesn't care anymore about all of these grand causes. But the problem with war is, once embarked upon, you know, you either go all in or you might as well not start the being. We've seen this over and over again from the Korean War, which is still going on all these years later, and now the enemy in the Korean War has nuclear weapons and ICBMs. isn't that great? You know, the Vietnam War was never resolved. You know, I mean, this kind of nonsense. And now Trump and his people are doing the exact same thing. You know, because believe me, if they leave the Iranian regime in place, they will acquire nuclear weapons on some future

president's watch. They will be more determined than ever to take down the great Satan and the little Satan and all of the, all of our tributary states in the Middle East, you know, the Gulf states and all this type of thing. And, you know, so. So it's just astonishing to me what has happened. And so that is, this is what we're seeing now is the worst possible scenario. If he does not finish what he started, then yes, what you're saying is absolutely true. Confidence in the U.S. ability to protect, the will to protect. It's not that we don't have the ability.

Well, the will. I should have been more specific about that in my comment or least an observation about that, but they'd have to be feeling a little stung. It's like, hey, wait a minute, you know, Petro dollar, we sell oil and only dollars and dollars only. And you're supposed to make sure we don't get bombed, right? That was kind of the deal, the implied deal. Right. And Iran, you know, in the early days of the war, inflicted minimal damage, frankly, on, yeah, they were firing a bunch of drones and this and that, the other thing. But they didn't, they didn't inflict a lot. I mean, even Dubai, I, American French who traveled through Dubai during the war, they didn't have, you know, it wasn't like bombs were raining down. There were, you know, a couple of errant projectiles made it through and this kind of thing. So, you know, it was, you know, Iran did a little bit of damage, but nothing, nothing critical. And obviously right now there are no positions to do that. But with every day that passes with this farcical ceasefire, Iran, of course, is

you know, reloading up on stockpiles. I guarantee you the cargo planes from Russia and China have not stopped, you know, carrying in materials. You know, they are fanatical and determined. They're not going to fold like a cheap suit. And so, you know, this is, you know, so it's just exasperating to me. So in this sense, Trump shows, frankly, is started. And I hope I'm wrong, MAGA people.

By the way, I hope I'm wrong in this is five-dimensional chess. And he does finish the job and get, you know, finish what he started. But, you know, having embarked on that. But, you know, I greatly fear that what we're seeing is the same lack of moral resolve that we've seen in every other war than America's fought since World War II. And it's going to make, it's going to make the Middle East incomparably worse. And yes, that will sabotage the petro dollar. Yeah. Do you believe that he thought it was going to be easier than it turned out to be?

Oh, absolutely. No, I mean, you know, Trump may know about business. He doesn't know a lot about foreign cultures. And in particular, a country like Iran, as a profoundly secular individual, you know, Trump does not understand the thought processes of people who are true religious fanatics. I mean, and the United States has been caught up in this occasionally before. I mean, we were taken aback in World War II. when Japanese started flying suicide missions into our ships in the Pacific. That was something that had not occurred to us from our Western values-based system that you could indoctrinate your soldiery to the point where they would literally embark on suicide missions. And I think, you know, the whole 9-11 thing to some extent was part of that too. Even though we knew there is such a thing as suicide bombers, you know, the idea that people would command your passenger airplanes and fly them into buildings, you know, killing themselves or you're aboard. That, I mean, that was the stuff of Hollywood fiction, but we couldn't really believe it could happen in real life.

And when it finally did, you know, we were, again, caught flat-footed. But this is the thing when you venture outside of the comfortable, cushy, you know, Western civilization type thing. And frankly, we've done a lot of bad things in Western civilization, too. You know, I mean, Nazism came out of that, kind of a distortion of that, you know. But this willingness to die for the cause, I mean, one thing you have to say for the Iranians, these guys aren't fake. They are absolutely committed. They believe that they're going to fight the apocalyptic war against the United States, and their Islamic Savior is going to step in at the crucial juncture to help them. And they're going to be rewarded for their devotion to it, to the cause.

Yeah, there's nothing fake about it. And so this idea, well, I'll drop a few bombs, and then they'll come to an agreement, and then they'll, and that may work with a Latin American dictator or somebody like that. Not going to work with these guys. Yeah, certainly different from Maduro. That's for sure. And now what I was kind of wondering, I was reading the Great Trust. Did you ever read the Great Trust, you know, that plan that the president has for Gaza? Did you ever read that? Oh, I read a synopsis. I'm not waiting the entire thing. It's quite fascinating. And I was reading the Great Trust and going through these plans for redeveloping Gaza and the Middle East that the Trump administration has come up with. And it's very ambitious. And there's a part of me that wondered if what drove this, if what drove this is not the nuke thing. is not the nuclear nuclear thing as much as

you know you're not going to redevelop the Middle East and get these trade routes going if you got the mad mullahs in power what do you think about that maybe that's oh absolutely no I mean that's part of it but the problem bill is if you go back to first kind of first premises

on what is premise this whole notion that it is our like our duty to rebuild the Middle East at all I mean you know as you as you as you correctly noted, it goes back to some degree to this whole petro dollar system, this understanding, but is this kind of international system what we really want? I mean, this is not what the world had. America didn't participate in any global system prior to World War II. And it's not clear

that we've really been on net, the beneficiaries of said system, particularly in recent years. I mean, an argument could be made, and it was made, of course, very routinely by internationally. up through the turn of this century that, you know, the American system of keeping the oceans open for trade and commerce has enabled the spread of Western values and all this type of things. Yeah, but also essentially... It can't make an argument now. Yeah, but also essentially, you know, exporting our manufacturing capability and then debasing our currency in the process.

Right. So those, yeah, and people are starting to see that that's the flip side, you know, that that same system that maybe helped the likes of... oh, I don't know, Korea and Japan and obviously Europe and some parts of Latin America to become developed countries has also allowed China to do the same. And, of course, has also enabled the mad mullahs in Iran for 49 years. And so, you know, so this so called international system has tremendous flaws. And at root, of course, the idea is that the United States is the enforcer, but not necessarily the authority of last resort. That's the United Nations. And, And so it involves, you know, critical compromises of national sovereignty that, you know, involvement in this entire system that, frankly, would have been anathema to America's founders who believed in being robustly non-interventionist and robustly independent and, in effect, not getting involved in old world problems.

Now, where Iran is concerned, I mean, Iran, you know, has declared us the enemy, kind of like the Barbary pirates did back in the day when Thomas Jefferson, this president, right? So it's not like we're in completely a third party here jumping in where we're not wanted as we did in the Balkans in the 90s and using military force to create a, to broker a peace between, you know, third party. So it's not that. But I still, I don't think, and obviously the organization I work for, the John Burke Society is resolutely opposed to our membership in the United Nations. We view it in this whole system that you're talking about, which allows a U.S. president to say, you know, I'm going to go and rebuild a part of the Middle East and put hotels and casinos and Gaza. Yeah, and then we're all supposed to dutifully stand up and bark like

train seals and clap, right? Yeah, I mean, I mean, so, so I mean, I'm certain, obviously, I wish the people of Gaza and certainly the people of Iran well. Sure. Again, I've never been to Iran. I've flown over. I have a lot of friends in Pakistan and lovely people, really. I mean, I mean, the people in the rest of the world, they're all children of God just like us, and the vast majority of human beings worldwide are decent, just like here in the United States. It's the ones, it's the nasty minority that always create the problems. And in the Middle East, there seems to be, they seem to be unusually empowered. I mean, Lebanon used to be a lovely country until Hezbollah effectively took it over.

So, I mean, I would like to see these problems resolved, but it's not clear to me under the proper vision of what America should be an exemplar and not a dominatrix, if you will, of the rest of the world, that this idea of nation building is something that we should be doing. And Trump himself has invade against nation building. But now with this Gaza plan, it kind of sounds like nation building. I know. And I think this has been driving some schisms within the Republican Party to even among his supporters, you know, some of the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, the, uh, the, the, uh, the, the, uh, noisier ones who have left the fold that are now termed low IQ. You know, that goes.

Well, yeah, because, you know, and the thing is, and this is something that his enemies like to point out, but there is some truth to this, that Trump is at heart basically a transactionalist. For him, you know, the ultimate goal is to make a deal. It's the transaction. It's not whether the transaction is necessarily right or wrong. It's not the moral hue of what you're doing. It's the transaction itself. And this is why he can effectively turn on a dime and go from, well, we're fighting this evil regime and we're finally doing what needs to be done to, oh, we're going to make a deal.

Yeah. You know, we're going to make a good deal. And it just goes on, like, I mean, Venezuela, you know, we went in there. We removed Maduro, quick and easy. Guess who's still in charge of Venezuela? The Communist Party. That's right. The same people are in charge, and they're still jailing journalists and still, you know, doing the same things.

But we made a deal with them now. And so we have access to the oil and everything's okay. Yeah, he's very much. driven by the deal while the art of the deal. His book, his best-selling book back in the day. And so for people like a lot of us who tend to look at the world through a moral lens, it's very hard to understand people who think like that. And yes, I am being critical of Trump because I don't approve of that, of that aspect of his persona. That's not to say that as president, he's still far to be preferred over the alternative. Oh, yeah. You know,

I'm not saying that, all right, but I am saying that there are aspects of Trump, I'm not a Trump worshipper or fanboy by any means. And that's one of the things that I find just very irksome is this idea that, because it presumes that all human behavior is ultimately transactional. And it's not, you know, at least it's not in the sense that he understands it. Not all of us are motivated most of the time by making money and getting the advantage over one another in the transactional sense. Well, I'm praying that, well, you know, I'm praying that we managed to do what, well, we normally do over time here when you look at the human history, Steve, and that would be muddle through.

Okay, let's, let's, well, we seem to be doing that. Yeah. No, and I don't think this is going to be World War III. No. I kind of say that all along. But, you know, but again, I will say, as distasteful as it is, and I'm, and by the way, we haven't talked about the, whether or not the war itself was embarked upon, I think we talked about this before, maybe, whether it was constitutional.

We don't need to go there today. But irrespective of all. of that, you know, having committed our nation to this course of action, if we don't finish the job, things are going to be much worse down the road for us, for the Iranian people, for the people of the Middle East, and for the entire world. No question about that. And on that note, I thank you so much for your analysis on this, Steve. Steve Bonta, economic expert and publisher of the New American. It's a publisher, a publishing, a magazine, rather that is of the John Birch Society.

The New American.com. Very excellent reading and analysis and good stories there. Thank you so much. A pleasure, as always. The New American.com. This is KMED and KMED HD1. Eagle Point, Medford, KBXG, Grants Pass. Do you remember as a kid writing Washington?